TRACES OF EPIMORPHISM CLASSES (Q5890396)

The author characterizes -- by means of closure properties -- those classes \(\mathcal{C}\) of morphisms in a category \({\mathcal X}\) that occur as preimages of the class of all epimorphisms (resp. all extremal epimorphisms, resp. all retractions) under some faithful functor \(F: {\mathcal X} \rightarrow{\mathcal Y}\). In particular he demonstrates the equivalence of the following conditions: \(\mathcal{C} = F^{-1} ({\mathcal E}pi {\mathcal Y})\) for some faithful \(F: {\mathcal X} \rightarrow {\mathcal Y}\), \(\mathcal{C} = F^{-1} ({\mathcal R}etr {\mathcal Y})\) for some faithful \(F: {\mathcal X} \rightarrow{\mathcal Y}\), \(\mathcal{C} = F^{-1} ({\mathcal S}trong {\mathcal E}pi {\mathcal Y})\) for some faithful \(F: {\mathcal X} \rightarrow{\mathcal Y}\), \(\mathcal{C}\) is a class of epimorphisms that contains all \({\mathcal X}\)-identities, is closed under composition, and is right-cancellable. He provides a similar characterization for extremal epimorphisms (and for classes \(\mathcal{C}\) that consist of all final morphisms with respect to some faithful functor) and asks whether there exist similar characterizations for regular (resp. strict) epimorphims. The main tool, enabling the author to solve the above problems is the so called semicategory method, developed by him earlier, that allows to extend a category (non-fully) by adding new morphisms by a controlled procedure.